Measuring Biodiversity and Extinction-Present and Past

Biodiversity of the Regional Landscape Park Samara Plavni within the first large reservoir in Europe Biodiversity of the Regional Landscape Park Samara Plavni within the first large reservoir in Europe

The creation of reservoirs in river valleys for the accumulation of fresh water has been and remains an important issue around the world. This process has both positive and negative consequences for people and nature. Significant changes in the regime of rivers and their valleys, flooding of meadows and forests, flooding of soils and changes in the composition of flora and fauna of adjacent territories are taking place. In this article, we consider the restoration of the biodiversity of a site of disturbed lands after the creation of one of the first large reservoirs in Europe – the Dnieper (Zaporozhe) on the River Dnieper, which has existed since 1933. The territory of the Samara floodplains was formed on the floodplain of the mouth of the Samara River, as a result of which the territories of various forest, meadow and bog biotopes were flooded. For almost 90 years, new biotopes have been developing, and populations of plant and animal species, especially waterfowl, have been renewed and enriched. In the conditions of climate change and anthropogenic pressure, the existence of this territory has fallen into question. To control the conservation of biodiversity, it is necessary to apply various management methods, one of which is creation of nature reserves. The article presents the results of a complex of scientific studies that were carried out during the zoning of the regional park Samara Plavni to improve the management of the protection of water areas and river banks. We have investigated: hydrological features, species diversity of the flora and coenotic diversity of the vegetation, fauna of aquatic invertebrates, and terrestrial vertebrates. Zoning of the Regional Landscape Park was based on the composition of stable components of ecosystems. When applying the protected regime in different zones, conditions will be created for the preservation of habitats of species, including those protected in Europe: higher plants (Senecio borysthenicus (DC.) Andrz. ex Czern., Tragopogon borystenicus Artemcz.), reptiles (Emys orbicularis (Linnaeus, 1758), Vipera renardi (Christoph, 1861)), birds (Aythya ferina (Linnaeus, 1758), Vanellus vanellus (Linnaeus, 1758), Haematopus ostralegus Linnaeus, 1758, Numenius arquata (Linnaeus, 1758), Alcedo atthis (Linnaeus, 1758), Lanius excubitor (Linnaeus, 1758)), mammals (Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758)). Such changes would increase the implementation of the reproductive potential of all species without exception in the studied ecosystems.

Molluscan phylogenomics requires strategically selected genomes

The extraordinary diversity in molluscan body plans, and the genomic mechanisms that enable it, remains one of the great questions of evolution. The eight distinct living taxonomic classes of molluscs are each unambiguously monophyletic; however, significant controversy remains about the phylogenetic relationships among those eight branches. Molluscs are the second-largest animal phylum, with over 100 000 living species with broad biological, economic and medical interest. To date, only around 53 genome assemblies have been accessioned to NCBI GenBank covering only four of the eight living molluscan classes. Furthermore, the molluscan taxa where partial or whole-genome assemblies are available are often aberrantly fast evolving or recently derived lineages. Characteristic adaptations provide interesting targets for whole-genome projects, in animals like the scaly-foot snail or octopus, but without basal-branching lineages for comparison, the context of recently derived features cannot be assessed. The currently available genomes also create a non-optimal set of taxa for resolving deeper phylogenetic branches: they are a small sample representing a large group, and those that are available come primarily from a rarefied pool. Thoughtful selection of taxa for future projects should focus on the blank areas of the molluscan tree, which are ripe with opportunities to delve into peculiarities of genome evolution, and reveal the biology and evolutionary history of molluscs. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Molluscan genomics: broad insights and future directions for a neglected phylum'.

Advances in Quaternary Studies: The Contribution of the Mammalian Fossil Record

Explaining the multifaceted, dynamic interactions of the manifold factors that have modelled throughout the ages the evolutionary history of the biosphere is undoubtedly a fascinating and challenging task that has been intriguing palaeontologists, biologists and ecologists for decades, in a never-ending pursuit of the causal factors that controlled the evolutionary dynamics of the Earth’s ecosystems throughout deep and Quaternary time. [...]